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July 17 (UPI) -- Monday's Google Doodle celebrates the 204th birthday of U.S. scientist and women's voting rights activist Eunice Newton Foote. The colorful drawing shows Foote smiling as she writes in a book, surrounded by thermometers and molecules.
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Clicking and scrolling through the artwork reveals more information about the scientist, who died in 1888.
Born in Connecticut in 1819, Foote discovered the impact carbon dioxide has on the Earth's atmosphere.
"She observed the temperatures of outdoor air vs. various gases when heated," the Google Doodle noted.
Foote determined that CO2 and water vapor heated up more and took much longer to cool back down than outdoor air.
"When radiation from the sun is absorbed by the Earth, some gets re-emitted as infrared radiation," the website said.
"Gases like CO2 absorb and reflect heat back to Earth, creating the greenhouse effect. Over time, higher levels of these greenhouse gases in our atmosphere raise the Earth's temperature."
